Lori’s Top 10 Summer Movies Of All Time

Summertime is fun. However, Summertime in Amarillo has been down right hot. Seriously Mother Nature, 106 degrees yesterday. Was that really necessary? What do you do when it is so hot to stay outside? Yes, I know you can hop in a pool but you can only do that for so long before you turn into a prune. I love running to the loving arms of my air conditioner. On those days when it is just to hot to be outside, I find myself making it a movie day. So what are the great movies for summer?

Hoops (John Cusack) is on a mission to get into art school after he didn't get a basketball scholarship so he takes off to Nantucket to try to find and idea for his art school application. He must sketch a love story. Once on the island he meets Cassandra Eldridge (Demi Moore). He helps her save her grandfather's house from greedy land developers. They fall in love and he has his story to sketch.

An overworked man Jack Chester, (John Candy) needed to take a break from work so he decides to take his family on a beach vacation. First of all they end up in the wrong rental only to shock the owners when they arrive. Then they get to their correct beach house to find it is falling apart. One thing after another keeps happening to his family, a bad sunburn, whiny kids and unwanted visitors. Then one night Jack gets into an argument with a rich sailor, and he decides that he is going to take him down by winning the annual regatta. The family pulls together to refurbish and old worn out boat so they can win.

Four best friends spend their first summer apart. To keep them together, they each take a turn wearing a pair of jeans that magically fit them all. The pants help one fall in love, another find the meaning of life, another deal with death, and one to realize that family isn't always there for you. It brings them all closer together.

A family sets off to spend their summer vacation in a cabin in the woods, then some unexpected company, their rich annoying in-laws show up and chaos ensues. Chet (John Candy) and his annoying brother and law Roman (Dan Aykroyd) spend the entire movie trying to one up each other. This movie is filled with laughs and we all know how vacations go when you take them with your extended family. Best Part of the Movie- Lamp Shotgun and a bare bear booty.

Vada Sultenfuss (Anna Chlumsky) has spent her life surrounded by death. Her mother died giving birth to her, her father (Dan Aykroyd) runs a funeral parlor out of their home. She decides to spend her summer in summer school because she is in love with her teacher. She struggles with guilt because she thinks she is the reason her mother died. She spends most of her summer plotting to break up her her father and his new girlfriend (Jamie Lee Curtis). When her best friend Thomas J. dies (Macaulay Culkin) she has to figure out life without him. It is a classic coming of age movie and I love everything about this movie.

After finding out a childhood friend has died, a writer, played by Richard Dreyfuss, recounts the journey they took as kids to find the dead body of a missing boy. I love how this movie touches on everything. Wil Wheaton plays Gordie a boy who's parents ignore him after the death of his older brother, The late River Phoenix plays Chris the kid who has been marked a criminal, Corey Feldman as Teddy, the abused kid with a crazy war torn father, and Vern, played by a then chubby Jerry O'Connel, as the overweight momma's boy. Over the course of a few days these boys come to terms with who they are and grow as friends and as people.

Haley Mills and Haley Mills star in this outstanding Disney movie as two girls who meet at Summer Camp only to find out they are twins. Their mom and dad split when they were babies each taking one. They decide to switch places and comedy ensues when they try to break-up their dad and soon to be wife, by getting their parents back together. I love the classic version the best (The Lindsey Lohan version didn't do it justice). Classic pranks, classic lines, classic songs. It is a great feel good movie. In fact, I caught this on TV the other night and fell in love with the movie all over again.

In the summer of 1962 a shy boy moves into a neighborhood and finds a group of rag tag boys who love to play baseball morning, noon and night. The boy learns about baseball when he finds his step fathers coveted Babe Ruth autographed baseball in the clutches of the beast. This is a great movie about friendship and growing up. Plus who could forget Squints plotting to get his first kiss from Wendy Peppercorn on a hot summer day at the pool. Lori's Sandlot Trivia- I got into a heated game of trivia one night with a classmate in college. We were both gunning for The Sandlot on Video. I lost by one question. Man it still stings because I love this movie. The great thing about this movie is my 4 year old loves it just as much as I do.

This movies takes place on the last day of school in May of 1976 the beginning of Summer. Parties, hazing, and romance, make for the ultimate summertime party movie with bell bottoms. Plus it introduced the world to Matthew McConaughey. Dazed and Confused Trivia: Matthew Matthew McConaughey met producer Don Phillips in a hotel bar one night and Phillips suggested he audition for the part of Wooderson. Richard Linklater, the director loved, McConaughey so much in that part he re-wrote to the script to include McConaughey in more scenes.

I fell in love with Patrick Swayze (along with the rest of the world) when this movie was released. Who doesn't dream of the bad boy sweeping you off your feet and into the air. The arm scene alone is enough to melt butter. This has all the elements of a summertime movie, vacation, resort, lake, and romance.

That Rounds Out My Top Ten

I know I missed a ton of summertime movies, but these are just my top 10 favorite. What summertime movie did I miss on this list? What is your favorite summertime movies.